Coffee shop customers 'pour it forward' and buy each other drinks for 25 weeks straight

If you've been to Rev It Up Espresso in the past few months, chances are you didn't pay for your own cup of joe. That's because over thousands of customers at the Sturgis, S.D. coffee shop have been paying it forward and buying each other's drinks since September 2015.

Owner Michael Smith says the good will phenomenon started last year when a someone paid for one regular customer's cup of coffee. She in turn paid it forward to the next person. That started a chain of a whopping 3,560 customers who have paid it forward and bought coffee for other guests.

"One lady named Sandy who has numerous times paid it forward to different people, one day someone paid it forward to her," Smith told ABC affiliated KOTA.

Sandra Chamberlin, a customer at the coffee shop who had paid it forward numerous times, told the Meade County Times-Tribune in September that she was amazed how far the trend had come. At that point, just over 160 cups had been paid forward.

"I'm thankful just one person carried it on," Chamberlain said. "My soul is so happy to see people still doing it. There's so much negative in the world, it's nice to see something positive."